Battle of Yorktown

The Battle of Yorktown was the first battle of the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War, fought from 5 April to 4 May 1862.

Following the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, President Abraham Lincoln replaced the Union general-in-chief Irvin McDowell with George B. McClellan, who was immensely popular among the troops and nicknamed "Young Napoleon" and "Little Mac". He spent the rest of the year drilling his soldiers eight hours a day and creating a well-trained army, the Army of the Potomac. However, President Lincoln grew impatient with McClellan, who wasted an entire half of a year without attempting to take the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. In early 1862, he demanded that he cross the Potomac River and march on Richmond.

However, McClellan instead decided to have his army shipped to Fortress Monroe on the Virginia Peninsula and advance inland towards Richmond, as he wrongly believed that northern Virginia was occupied by the Confederates. On 4 April, McClellan's 121,500 troops and their 14,592 horses and mules, 1,150 wagons, 44 batteries of artillery, ambulances, pontoon bridges, provisions, tents, and telegrpah wire were landed on the Virginia coast by hundreds of boats over the course of three days.

At Yorktown, less than 20 miles away, the vastly-outnumbered Confederates waited for battle. The Union forces were bogged down on wet roads, and their officers were forced to purchase maps at stores. On 5 April, the advance guard reached Yorktown, where the Confederates used Charles Cornwallis' old headquarters as their own. Yorktown was manned by only 11,000 Confederate troops under John B. Magruder, a theatrical and showy Virginian. He fooled McClellan by keeping up a sporadic, widely-scattered artillery barrage and endlessly paraded the same Alabama battalion in a clearing to give the illusion of a large defending force. McClellan telegraphed Lincoln that he faced at least 100,000 men, and he called for reinforcements. Meanwhile, the Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston, incredulous at McClellan's failure to attack, marched to reinforce Yorktown. Lincoln, again disappointed, sent a cool telegram to McClellan and ordered him to attack Yorktown, but McClellan chose to dig in. Union general Phil Kearny nicknamed McClellan "the Virginia Creeper" for refusing to attack. For almost a month, the Union army sat in front of Yorktown, and, for two out of every three days, it rained, causing hundreds to fall ill. McClellan had moved 90 federal guns by 3 May, building corduroy roads (timber highways) to transport the guns. On the night of 3 May, Magruder's batteries intensified their fire, and McClellan raced for an attack. However, the next morning the Confederates vanished, abandoning Yorktown and deserting their camps. McClellan declared it a Union victory, saying that there would be no delay in following the rebels. McClellan's army followed the Confederates towards Richmond, coming within 9 miles of the city. President Jefferson Davis prepared for a siege of Richmond, but his adviser Robert E. Lee told him that the city would not be given up. McClellan refused to attack Richmond, fearing that he was outnumbered (despite his actual numerical superiority); he demanded 40,000 more troops, and he continued to wait. On 5 May 1862, the next battle would occur at Williamsburg.